What I'm reading this week (2/20/17)

Last week I finished:

Last week I finished my audio-read of Wolf Hollow. This book had been on my TBR since it came out last year. I enjoyed the book. I've seen it compared to To Kill a Mockingbird, but I'd have to say that's true in plot only. It's no To Kill a Mockingbird, but then I think TKaM is one of the finest books in American literature. Wolf Hollow is about Annabelle who lives on a farm with her family during World War II. When a new girl comes to school who bullies Annabelle and others, things escalate a point where truly terrible things happen. This isn't a book about name-calling and kids-will-be-kids bullying. People actually get hurt. People hate. People go on manhunts. People die. It was ally pretty real. I liked the writing, the characters, the strong sense of setting, the moral dilemma Annabelle faces when lying to her parents. What I didn't love about the book was the sense of danger. For the fifth grade and up crowd, there really isn't anything terrible in the book--nothing worse than a mild-ish TV drama, I suppose, but I still enjoy children's books that celebrate the innocence of childhood, not that put a child into an adult situation. My rating: 3.5 stars.

I also finished Michael Booth's Super Sushi Ramen Express. I'm torn about this one. On the one hand, I learned a lot about Japanese food. It's a comprehensive look at everything from ramen to Kobe beef to dashi to sushi and sashimi to soy sauce to tempura. There were also interesting side adventures to places like a restaurant that serves its noodles upstream from a family with chopsticks waiting to pluck them out of the water, sauce them, and eat. We meet sumo wrestlers, talk to MSG moguls, go to a tea ceremony, visit a wasabi farm (did you know wasabi is best grown in running water?), Okinawa to chat with people who enjoy the best longevity on the planet, and lots of other destinations. I marked dozens of facts that I want to captures. But on the other hand, I found the book a little boring. I tend not to like books that take a reader to a different place each chapter, to meet different people, and that set up little interviews for the reader. That sort of drives me bonkers. This was one of those books. I was also a little annoyed by the way the author took what the industry folks said about their various products (such as the MSG folks) as fact without challenge. It seemed a little sloppy. So, I don't know, I learned a lot, but I didn't always enjoy the ride all that much. It's a great book if you want lots of facts about Japanese food and cooking, and especially if you don't mind the kind of travel book that gives you whiplash. My rating: 3 stars.

 

This week I'll finish:

I think I'll kind of miss Eleanor and Park when I'm done with this book. They're great characters. I just hope this one ends well. I could see it going any number of places, and I'm anxious.

Last week I began:

I finally started my "other" book for the month, House Beautiful Pink. There isn't much text here at all, but it sure is pretty. Perfect book for Valentine's month.

And because I can't go more than a day without having a poetry collection going, I picked up my March choice, Poems That Make Grown Men Cry. It's a collection of short essays by famous men you've never heard of talking about the poem that makes them cry, and the poem, of course, is included. It's arranged chronologically, so I'm still back in the early 1800s, which isn't my preferred era for poetry, but I have hopes of liking it more when we get to the modern poems.

My current audiobook:

I often choose audiobooks to knock off a long book that I wouldn't get to for months otherwise. Belgravia, written by Julian Bellows of Downton Abbey fame, is one of those books. I don't have a good idea of what the book will be about, but I was in the mood for an old, sweeping story, and I think it will be that. 

Next up:

 

Driving Mr. Albert has been on my TBR for so long that I'd actually sold and bought back the book.

It's about a road trip with Albert Einstein's (literal) brain by the author of The Telling Room (about a cheese road trip in France...or something like that). 

What I'm reading this week (2/13/17)

What I finished last week:

I love the Flavia de Luce mystery series. A spunky and precocious 11-year-old girl in 1950s England who solves murders when she happens upon them. That sounds unbelievable, but somehow it's believable when you're reading one. I adored the first (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie), liked but didn't love the second (The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag), and really liked the third, A Red Herring without Mustard. It's fun to solve the crime along with Flavia, and there's always humor and a bit of hair-raising danger. I hope Flavia goes on solving her mysteries forever. My rating: 4 stars.

I also finished Billy Collins' new book of poetry, The Rain in Portugal. It was pretty representative of Collins' work. Though it wasn't earthshattering, it was familiar and bright and sometimes witty (though not as much of that as usual). I enjoyed it. My rating: 4 stars.

This week I continue with:

 

I'm finding myself really looking forward to reading Eleanor & Park in the evenings, but yes, the foul language is still making me wince.

I'll be finishing Wolf Hollow tomorrow, and I'm just hoping all ends well. For a children's book, it's making me a little anxious.

Next up:

Next up, an foodie adventure to Japan with Super Sushi Ramen Express. I have a feeling there will be a trip to a teppanyaki place while I'm reading this one. Don't tell my hubby. It'll be a surprise!

The funnest books I read last year

It was a rough year. Ask anyone. Politics, terrorism, cop killings, protests, the absolute worst of humanity was on display. So I think it's appropriate to put up a little list of my favorite fun reads of last year to share my favorite escapes. Please share yours in the comments!

Bill Bryson nailed it with In a Sunburned Country, about his adventures in Australia. Hilarious and informative, this is now my favorite Bryson book, and it's going to take a lot to knock it off the top spot.

 

I find history the most fun thing to read about. I'm weird that way. I adored Dead Presidents. The focus here is more on the president and his memorial than on the "dead" part, although some of our former leaders have some truly interesting death stories. Another witty and informative read.

 

I find Jenny Rosenstrach's glimpses into motherhood, family life, and family dinner just wonderful. This one was a keeper. 

 

Dancing with Joy is a collection of poems about happiness, which sounds cheesy, but there's nothing cheesy here.

 

Oh my gosh did I love this book about Harry and Bess Truman's road-trip out east in the summer of 1953.

 

I'm new to comics and superheroes (super-heroines, I guess), but Ms. Marvel (vol. 1) surpassed my expectations of what a hero comic could be. I had a lot of fun with it.

 

Amy Krouse Rosenthal has a wonderfully different kind of brain. It's always positively pursuing odd connections between things and presenting them with wide-eyed wonder. This one didn't get nearly the love it deserved last year.

This adorable children's book was just the right mix of adventure and emotion and cuteness. I really, really liked it.

Please comment with your favorite fun or light reads and keep the good feelings going!

What I'm reading this week (2/6/17)

Last week I finished:

 

Fredrik Backman (of A Man Called Ove fame) released a novella last fall called And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, a semi-autobiographical book about a parent/grandparent's struggle with dementia. The book is beautifully written, poignant, and a touch magical. It's a sad book, especially if you've been touched by Alzheimer's, but it's never manipulative or maudlin. I marked so many passages, I might as well have marked the whole book. I recommend this one, if you have a box of tissues close by. My rating: 4 stars.

I read another short book, We Should All Be Feminists, for one of my 2017 mini-challenges to "read a book that will rile me up." I was disappointed, but not for the reason I thought I'd be. As I understand it, this book came from a Ted Talk done by the author. I expected a much more ardent view, something that would likely make me bristle, but it was rather dispassionate. I think the problem is it was written from a Nigerian's experience to an American audience. There's a difference between Americans and Nigerians when it comes to gender and society. The examples she sited from Nigerian culture are things women here fought against in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. I expected a real strong, coherent argument with specific points, but the book was just a general "we must do better" plea. I didn't get much out of it, and it definitely didn't rile me up. My rating: 3 stars.

This weekend I finished my audio of the second No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book, Tears of the Giraffe. It was every bit as wonderful as the first. I'm so sorry it took me so long to discover these books, what I've read so far has been wonderful. In this book, Mma Ramotswe's fiancé,  Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, adopts two orphans without discussing it with her first, and Mma Ramotswe gets to the bottom of a missing persons case, the trail ten years cold. Another wonderful installment. My rating: 4.5 stars.

 

Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., passed on in 2006. Her book, My Life, My Love, My Legacy was written from interviews given to Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds over several decades. I enjoyed the first half, covering her life with Dr. King, their marches for civil rights, and her experiences of black life in the south. The second half of the book focused on activism in more recent times and the building of the King Center in Atlanta, and I just lost interest. It's unsafe these days for a white person to talk about race without being branded racist, which is really too bad, so I won't go into my ideological issues with Mrs. King's activism. I will say I wish she would have given examples of how she and Dr. King thought America should deal with national security threats from other countries using nonviolence. She hammered home her strongly held beliefs that nonviolence was the answer, and I won't say she's wrong, but she offered no alternatives to protection with arms. In all, this is a worthwhile book, but the first half was by far the best part. (My first edition hardcover had many typographical and factual errors. I haven't seen that in a book for a long time.) My rating: 3 stars.

I listened to Pax on audio while I took my Christmas tree down and worked on my latest puzzle this weekend. I am very surprised I stuck with it, because I found this book so unbearably sad, difficult, and hard-hearted. It's the story of Peter and his pet fox, Pax, whom he must leave in a woods because his father is going off to war, and their long journey back together. There was very little redemption in the unkind characters; the ending for the fox was just, I suppose, but the human conflicts were never resolved. There was no setting, which really bothered me for some reason. The reader has no idea which country this was set in, during which time period, or on the eve of which war (I assume it is a future or imagined war, though). It was disorienting and much too grim for me, and I don't think I'd recommend it to a kid, frankly. But I know others loved this book. It has done well and received acclaim. For me, though, I'll stick to Pennypacker's Clementine and Waylon books, because I like my children's books to comfort and entertain, not challenge me to the point of emotional frustration. My rating: 3 stars.

I'm also reading:

 

I'm enjoying Eleanor & Park, in spite of all the foul language.

I'm loving The Rain in Portugal, because, Billy Collins!

 

Next up:

I believe my next "main" book will be the third Flavia du Luce book, A Red Herring without Mustard. I can't wait!

My next audio will be Wolf Hollow. I've wanted to read it since it came out, but someone recently said it's great on audio, so I'm going with that.

February 2017 reading list

I love these first couple months of the year when I get to read the "cream" that I've skimmed off my TBR pile. All the things I didn't get to last year but desperately want to fill my January and February reading lists. In January I read a lot of "buzz books" that everyone but me had read, and this month I'm reading a lot of things I've "saved" for the right occasion.


First up, fiction. I'm diving into the third Flavia du Luce mystery, A Red Herring without Mustard. And I'm reading the second No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book, Tears of the Giraffe, on audio. A couple weeks ago I loved the first one on audio so much, I just might read as many as I can that way.

Next up, children's books. Eleanor & Park is another from my "buzz books" list that everyone but me has read. And I'm planning to tackle Pax on audio, because it might be the only way I start it. And I'm also going to listen to Wolf Hollow. It's been on my list since it was published, but since it's just won an ALA honor, it moved up.

 

And the meat of the list: nonfiction. I'm currently reading Coretta Scott King's My Life, My Love, My Legacy. I've decided Super Sushi Ramen Express and Driving Mr. Albert because I really wanted some adventure books for these dreary winter days.

 

And then there's the "other" category. I wanted a good, strong, book of poetry, so I chose Billy Collins' new The Rain in Portugal that I can't wait to begin. To fulfill one of my mini-challenges, I'm picking up We Should All Be Feminists as a "book that will likely rile me up." We'll see how that goes as I have strong reasons for not identifying as a feminist though I used to proudly wave that flag. And as a nod to Valentine's Day, I'm finally going to fall into House Beautiful's Pink.

 

 

 

January 2017 wrap-up

January was a great reading month for me, not only in numbers but in quality. I read 12 books, two on audio, and five that "everyone but me" has read. Below I'll give you a one-word review as well as my star rating (out of five). Refer to January "What I'm reading this week posts" for full reviews. It's hard to choose a favorite book this month, though three titles garnered five stars: Carrying Albert Home, Wonder, and Mario Batali's Big American Cookbook. My least favorite was definitely Where'd You Go, Bernadette.

 

 

worthy

****

charming

*****

awful

**

thoughtful

****1/2

average

***1/2

good

***1/2

well-written

****

fantastic

*****

 

perfect

*****

 

delish

****1/2

 

onerous

***

poignant

****